| 998 especial tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, in a different sense from that considered in relation to his residence in other tabernacles. These are doctrines not revealed, and are neither believed nor sanctioned by the Twelve, and should be rejected by every saint:
Cultivate peace, love and union among yourselves. Uphold, by your prayers, those appointed to preside over you.
With anxious desires for your welfare, and with the warmest feelings of affection and love, I subscribe myself, your faithful shepherd, in the new and everlasting covenant.
ORSON PRATT.
New York, August 25th, 1845.
From the N. Y. Messenger.
THE FULFILMENT [FULFILLMENT] OF PROPHECY CONCERNING THE ARABS.
The history of the Arabs, so opposite in many respects to that of the Jews, but as singular as theirs, was concisely and clearly foretold.-It was prophesied concerning Ishmael:-"He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand will be against him: and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. I will make him fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly; and I will make him a great nation. Gen. xvi 12; xvii. 20.
The fate of Ishmael is here identified with that of his descendants; and the same character is common to them both. The historical evidence of the fact, the universal tradition, and constant boast of the Arabs themselves, their language, and preservation for many ages of an original rite, derived from him as their primogenitor, confirm the truth of their descent from Ishmael. The fulfilment [fulfillment] of the prediction is obvious. Even Gibbon, while he attempts from the exceptions which he specifies to evade the force of the fact, that the Arabs have maintained a perpetual independence, acknowledges that these exceptions are temporary and local; that the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies; and that "the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia." But even the exceptions which he specifies, though they are justly stated, and though not coupled with such admissions as invalidate them, would not detract from the truth of the prophecy. The independence of the Arabs was proverbial in ancient as well as in modern times; and the present existence, as a free and independent nation, for a people who derive their descent from so high antiquity, demonstrates that they have never been wholly subdued, as all the nations around them have unquestionably been; and that they have ever dwelt in the presence of their brethren. They not only subsist unconquered to this day, but the prophesied and primitive wildness of their race, and their hostility to all, remains unsubdued and unaltered. "They are a wild people; their hand is against every man; and every man's hand is against them." In the words of Gibbon, which strikingly assimilate with those of the prophecy, they are armed against mankind." Plundering is their profession. Their alliance is never courted, and can never be obtained; and all that the Turks, or Persians, or any of their neighbors can stipulate for from them, is a partial and purchased forbearance. Even the British, who have established a residence in almost every country, have entered the territories of the descendants of Ishmael to accomplish only the premeditated destruction of a fort and to retire. It cannot be alledged [alleged] with truth, that their peculiar character and manner, and its interrupted permanency, are the necessary results of the nature of their country. They have continued wild and uncivilized, and have retained their habits of hostility towards all the rest of the human race, though they possessed for three hundred years countries the most opposite in their nature from the mountains of Arabia. The greatest part of the temperate zone was included within the limits of the Arabian conquests; and their empire extended from the confines of India to the shores of the Atlantic, and embrace a wider range of territory than ever was passed by the Romans, those boasted masters of the world.-The period of their conquest and dominion was sufficient, under such circumstances, to have changed the manners of any people: but, whether in the land of Shinah, or in the valleys of Spain, on the banks of the Tigris, or the Tagus, in Arabia the blessed, or Arabia, the barren, the prosperity of Ishmael have ever maintained their prophetic character; they have remained, under every change of condition, a wild people; their hand has still been against every man, and every man's hand against them.
The natural reflection of a recent traveler, on examining the peculiarities of an Arab tribe, of which he was an eye-witness, may suffice, without any art of controversy, for the illustration of this prophecy: "On the smallest computation, such must have been the manners of those people for more than three thousand years: thus in all things verifying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth, that he, in his posterity, should be a wild man, and always continue to be so, though they shall dwell for ever in the presence of their brethren.-And that an acute and active people, surrounded
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